The Age of Gods, just as the name suggests, was the "era of the gods."
There were gods in the sky, gods upon the earth, and gods within the seas.
Love arose because of the gods, and so did hatred. War and death, too, originated from them.
What people called the laws of nature were, in truth, the authorities wielded by the gods. The world belonged to the gods, and the gods, in turn, existed because of it.
Whether the various myths, beliefs, and religions preserved across the modern world all originated from the same source remains a matter of debate.
However, in the eyes of modern magi, these legends are merely explanations for the fact that the Age of Gods truly existed.
The gods undeniably existed, but with the arrival of the Age of Man, they vanished without a trace.
The disappearance of the Age of Gods can be divided into three stages: Decline, Separation, and Catalyst.
The stage of decline began at an unknown point in time, but evidence suggests it ended around 12,000 BCE.
During that era, Earth experienced a massive catastrophic event, and from that point onward, the primordial mythological civilizations began to deteriorate.
In fact, this disaster was caused by the approach of a predatory celestial body, which released its vanguard unit, Sefar-02, also known as the lunar giant Altera, initiating an invasion of Earth.
At the time, Sefar-02, in the form of Sefar, defeated the primordial war god who protected the planet.
To counter this overwhelming enemy, Gaia forged the legendary "Star-forged Holy Sword."
In the end, Sefar was destroyed by the wielder of that holy sword, and prehistorical civilization was annihilated along with it.
The stage of Separation marked the beginning of the end of the Age of Gods, it was the time when the gods began to disappear and part ways with the world.
The exact timing of this stage differed among pantheons, but it is generally recognized to have begun with the Mesopotamian pantheon, or, more specifically, the Babylonian civilization.
Foreseeing the inevitable disappearance of True Ether and the eventual fading of the gods, the Mesopotamian deities devised a unique plan to prolong the Age of Gods.
However, all their efforts were undone because of a single king.
That king was both their means of preserving the Age of Gods and their final gamble, a being created to bind gods and humans together, a hybrid of both, regarded as the "Wedge of Heaven" and entrusted with their hopes, the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh.
Yet his actions ran completely contrary to the mission given to him by the gods, he chose to break free from their control.
Because of Gilgamesh's rebellion, the Mesopotamian gods' desperate gamble ultimately failed. As a result, they gradually lost their power and disappeared from the world.
For the era that followed the Age of Gods, there were no longer any gods.
Having fulfilled their roles, they chose to leave the world and ascend to a higher-dimensional realm, where they observed the world as distant, intangible divine beings…
After the chief gods vanished, what remained in the world was merely their lingering attachment to the mortal realm.
Over thousands of years, even that faded away, eventually replaced in human consciousness by what came to be known as "legends."
The attempt to prolong the Age of Gods and maintain divine rule over the world was not unique to the Mesopotamian pantheon, other pantheons also pursued similar strategies.
The gods did not know why the Age of Gods would end, nor when that day would arrive, but they all prepared contingencies for their survival.
However, the failure and disappearance of the Mesopotamian gods after their all-or-nothing gamble terrified the others. As a result, no other pantheon was willing to stake its existence on one or two uncertain plans.
Compared to the Mesopotamian gods, their methods were far more moderate.
Take the Heliopolitan pantheon, for example.
Their plan was to sustain the existence of the gods through the Pharaohs, who were descendants of the divine.
In essence, this was quite similar to the Mesopotamian approach, the Pharaohs themselves served as their "Wedge of Heaven."
As long as the Pharaoh's rule endured, even if the Age of Gods vanished, the Egyptian gods would continue to exist.
Of course, having learned from the Mesopotamian failure, the Egyptian gods treated their "Wedge of Heaven" very differently.
The Mesopotamian gods' arbitrary interference in mortal affairs and their attempts to control Gilgamesh led to his rebellion, resulting in mutual destruction.
Thus, after guiding the Egyptians out of ignorance for several generations, the Heliopolitan gods withdrew to the heavens, leaving the mortal world entirely in the hands of Pharaohs and humanity.
Although they continued to assist through divine arts, they unanimously agreed not to interfere in human conflicts, entrusting all fate to mankind.
This was precisely why they held Nitocris in such high regard, after all, the golden age and systems she established could be considered a "foundation for eternity."
To the Heliopolitan gods, this was effectively extending their own existence.
However, after interacting with them, Alaric realized that compared to other gods he knew, the Heliopolitan deities were truly resolute and worthy of respect.
As Ra put it.
"Being a god means upholding the duties of a god and preserving divine dignity.
If fate decrees our disappearance, then we shall accept it without reservation and gladly return our responsibilities to the world, making a proper farewell as gods, rather than clinging to life like dogs, harming the mortals who worship us.
That is the true majesty of a god."
In other words, if one day the Pharaoh was no longer a divine descendant, or if Egypt ceased to worship the Heliopolitan gods and they faded away as a result, they would accept it calmly as the will of fate.
Though they were a group of stubborn old relics, they were, unexpectedly, worthy of admiration.
And the gods Ra referred to, those who would harm their worshippers just to prolong their existence, were the Olympian gods of Greece.
The Olympian pantheon also relied on divine bloodlines to sustain themselves, but unlike the Heliopolitan gods, their internal conflicts made it impossible to select a single lineage to unify and rule Greece continuously as the Pharaohs did.
Even deciding whose descendants to use would lead them into fierce disputes.
So instead, they took a different approach, spreading their bloodlines across the world while using various means to expand their faith.
Their plan was to ensure their survival in the era after the disappearance of True Ether. This was why they valued faith so highly, even to the point of recreating humanity twice.
However, while both methods relied on bloodlines and belief, their approach was far more reckless.
They treated humanity as mere tools, and their actions were even more extreme than those of the Mesopotamian gods.
Yet unlike their failed predecessors, they were more cunning. Greece was never unified, with its city-states divided and constantly at odds.
Even if some people grew resentful of the gods' actions, in such a chaotic world, even kings had no choice but to pray for divine protection, ensuring that humanity would continue to worship them indefinitely.